Based in Palo Alto, Gus Gostyla spent his career supporting startup founders and VCs by building strategic partnerships with iconic consumer tech brands. He continues to work closely with the consumer hardware, software and gaming ecosystems to provide management and board search, succession planning, board advisory, executive search, and strategic advisory. Before joining Egon Zehnder, Gus spent seven years at Google, leading teams devoted to accelerating startups in its App Store, growing global relationships with the venture community, and cultivating partnerships for Google’s hardware business. He also spent seven years at Microsoft in Redmond, where he led seminal social networking deals with Facebook and Twitter on behalf of its Xbox and mobile phone divisions. In between, he led business development teams at consumer and enterprise startups like Flipboard, Inkling, and Intraware. Gus launched his career at Red Herring Magazine, where he worked with VCs to identify the best startups for demo days. Gus earned a BA in economics from Middlebury College in Vermont and an MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. Outside work, he’s an avid outdoorsman, photographer and loves surfing, skiing, and mountain biking with his kids.